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Biker did wheelie at 61mph

This is the moment when a thrill-seeking motorbiker tore through an Oxfordshire village at more than twice the speed limit and performed a wheelie.

Jason Jesty, of Burwell Drive, Witney, was caught on a speed camera pulling the dangerous stunt in Nuneham Courtenay at 8.40pm on June 5 last year.

But yesterday he walked free from court after escaping a prison sentence, although the court took away his bike.

The 36-year-old pleaded guilty to both dangerous driving and perverting the course of justice after he rode his high performance Suzuki GSXR motorbike on one wheel without displaying a rear
numberplate at 61mph in a 30mph zone.

Judge David Morton Jack handed Jesty a 28 week prison sentence suspended for two years.

He was also disqualified from driving for 12 months and ordered to do 40 hours community service.

And a deprivation order was placed on his bike, thought to be worth £5,000.

The machine will now either be sold or destroyed.

After sentencing, Jesty said he was relieved to have escaped jail, and pledged never to perform such a stunt again.

The scaffolder had been given fixed penalty notices for the same offence on two previous occasions, April 12, 2003, and February 2, 2004.

He was pulled over again on July 24 last year for driving without a number plate and Pc Tony Leach recognised him as the rider caught on the speed camera doing a wheelie.

Yesterday, Pc Leach said he thought the sentence handed out to Jesty was a severe one and hoped it would send out a message to the biking comm- unity.

He said: "Mr Jesty is a sensible man, he has got commitments and to have had this hanging over him was a punishment in itself.

"The message I would like to send out is that people should enjoy riding motorbikes, but should do it safely.

"It is incredibly dangerous to do a wheelie on a public highway. He had very limited control and most of the steering and braking is done through the front wheel."

Judge Morton-Jack said: "The truth is that you are not too bad a fella.

"But you thought you could keep getting away with it and it has all fallen on you like a tower of bricks. You are 36 now and you must make sure that you never repeat this again."

Before sentencing, Jesty's mother Marion went into the witness box to speak for him In court she said: "He has been brought up to know the difference between right and wrong and he knows this is
definitely wrong."

More motorcyclists will be taken to court if they are captured driving dangerously at any of the regular 'meets' in Oxfordshire, police have warned.

Every Monday evening a police CCTV van monitors dozens of motorcyclists who gather at Fox's Diner, on the A4074 near Berinsfield.

Officers have now warned they will use images to prosecute all motorcyclists who persist in reckless driving or endangering the public.